True to the French tradition of creativity, La Financière Saint James believes in the transformative power of innovation and technology. That’s why we embark on investment journeys with incredible entrepreneurs whose disruptive ideas promise to change the world for the better. We know from experience that helping founders navigate the twists and turns of business is the key to unlocking their success.
Because we see every investment as an adventure, our team possesses an eminently entrepreneurial spirit, characterised by an inexhaustible drive for action, unrelenting commitment and a keenly-developed ability to connect the dots between our various investments.
Our pioneering, can-do attitude is precisely why we prefer investing in the real economy than in markets.
We’re a human-scale firm capable of delivering operational excellence, with the technical, financial, legal and administrative know-how to deliver to the highest standards.
Our adventures are not only inspired by brilliant ideas, we are also passionate about incredible assets. Fuelled by a passion for exquisite architecture, stand out structures and iconic buildings, Financière Saint James sees investing in real estate as another sort of adventure.
Passionate about France, entrepreneurship and people, Michaël Benabou is above all nourished by human adventure. He draws a future made of innovations and creative people where experience and new ideas can finally cross freely.
Michaël Benabou started his entrepreneurial career at the age of 18 by launching a brand of fancy underwear, while simultaneously studying at the Institut Supérieur de Gestion.
In 1991, associates and created COPAD, a wholesaler of fashion items. During 10 years, he will be a salesman, developing COPAD until it becomes the first French destocker. But very quickly he distinguishes himself from other stockists. Michaël Benabou insists on keeping his word and quickly understands the impossibility for brands to sell off to stockists who, constrained by their own costs, always ask for more discounts. With his associates, they look for a solution to reduce their costs while increasing the margin of the brands. We are in 2001, e-commerce in Europe is booming but it has not yet tried the adventure of textile. With his associates, Michaël Benabou decided to eliminate their stocks, paying only for what they sold: the revolutionary concept of vente-privée.com was born.
Co-founder of this pioneering company, Michaël Benabou takes over the management of commercial development and then of the international business. The company's turnover multiplied by 1000 between 2003 and 2013, going from 1.5 million to 1.5 billion euros.
At the end of 2013, 13 years after he started the company, Michaël Benabou sold 90% of his shares in vente-privée.com to devote himself fully to his asset holding company: Financière Saint James. Financière Saint James' first significant investment was a 20% stake in the Paris Beaugrenelle shopping center. Michaël Benabou has also chosen to focus on innovation, technology and French creative talent. At a time when we are experiencing a major technological disruption, the companies in which Michaël Benabou and Financière Saint James invest are truly disruptive and experience-creating.
Grégory is graduated from the Magistère de Sciences de Gestion and the Master of Finance and Real Estate Management of the University of Paris Dauphine.
He started his career at Apsys in the Project Management Department in charge of the Beaugrenelle operation. For 8 years, Grégory held various strategic positions for the company in the Development and Strategic Partnerships Department.
In 2014, he led the Beaugrenelle sale and acquisition operation, during which he met Michael Benabou, who participated in the financing round.
In 2015, he joined Financière Saint James as Managing Director with the mission to structure and lead the Family Office around a diversified investment and management policy. His experience and expertise in the management of complex operations and his mastery of financial instruments give Financière Saint James a broad, diversified and value-creating scope of intervention.
Clément is Deputy CEO real estate at Financière Saint James. He is a graduate of the Ecole Centrale Paris and Sciences-Po Paris. Clément has 8 years of professional experience acquired within the Unibail-Rodamco group, during which time he held several positions within the group's Development Department and built up a complete and varied expertise: setting up complex operations, but also prospecting, responding to calls for projects, acquisitions, asset management, etc...
In particular, he has managed the development of large-scale and emblematic Parisian projects such as the Gaîté-Montparnasse project (redevelopment of a mixed-use real estate complex of approximately 110,000m²) and carried out several strategic missions on the Forum des Halles project.
Sylvain is a graduate of the Institut Supérieur de Commerce and the CIIA (SFAF), Sylvain spent 2 years in the United States in corporate finance management and 9 years in a management company in Paris (financial management, investment analyst, wealth manager) before creating Colisée Family Office to work with his clients on financial management, investment analysis, liability optimization, and the implementation of special projects.
Colisée Family Office has been working alongside Financière Saint James since 2014 and acts as financial director, maintaining the relationship with the group's banks, particularly on the financial investments, financial debt, as well as mortgage debt part.
Steven is a graduate of l’Ecole Supérieure des Professions Immobilières with a major in engineering of real estate finance. Steven started his career at HSBC where he held several positions within the REIT asset management division.
In 2017, he joined the investment team and actively participated in several acquisitions worth 400 millions euros. In 2019, Steven joined Financière Saint James’ team as head of real estate investments.
